VBIED

A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), also known as a car bomb or truck bomb (depending on the vehicle) is a type of bomb carried by a vehicle to its target. There are two types of VBIEDs: suicide bombers, and abandoned cars. In the case of suicide bombers in combat, the vehicles are usually improvised armored vehicles, as the suicide bomber is protected inside of the vehicle and can reach his destination without being shot; if the suicide bomber is in a city, it is likely that he will be driving a big vehicle that can protect him to the best of its limited ability. If the vehicle is rigged to explode and detonated by remote, it is usually parked in a crowded area and given some distance by the attackers before they detonate the bombs inside. VBIEDs have been employed since the Armenian Revolutionary Federation assassination attempt on Sultan Abdulhamid II of Turkey in 1905, and the Stern Gang in the Jewish-Arab-British conflicts in Palestine (1940-1948) Irish Republican Army in The Troubles (1960s-1990s), the Mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989) and the ensuing Afghan Civil War (1990s) and Afghanistan War (2000s-2010s), Hezbollah during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-2005), and the Tamil Tigers during the Sri Lankan Civil War (1976-2009) have extensively used car bombs. Mass-casualty car bombings are now mostly located in the Middle East, with militants and criminals in India, Palestinian militants, terrorists in Lebanon, Iraqi insurgents, and Mexican drug cartels continuing to use VBIEDs in warfare.